Minister Lenihan meets business groups over bank credit

4 August 2010

The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan TD, today [Wednesday] met farmers, hoteliers and business-owners in Dublin in the latest of a series of workshops on credit for small businesses.

Minister Lenihan chaired a meeting of 33 representatives from business and farming organisations including the Small Firms Association, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises, Chambers Ireland, the Irish Farmers’ Association and the Irish Hotels Federation.

The meeting, attended by representative groups from Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, was held in the Plaza Hotel, Tallaght.

It was the sixth in a series of eight regional meetings across the country in recent weeks.

The other meetings have been held in Cork, Athlone, Galway, Waterford and Bundoran.

Minister Lenihan said it was important to hear at first-hand the experience of borrowers so that their views could be fed back to the Government, the Credit Review Office and the banks.

‘This Government wants to ensure that we have a properly functioning banking system to support enterprise and to drive job growth as Ireland emerges from recession and enters recovery.

‘I will be feeding the constructive frontline views back to the Government to inform our engagement with the Credit Review Office and the banks so that our common mission to help small businesses is realised.

‘Small businesses are the bedrock of the indigenous Irish economy.

‘The submission of the banks’ tailored lending plans, together with the new internal appeals mechanism and Credit Review Office, are significant steps the Government has insisted on taking on behalf of SMEs who rightly demand a credit return on the huge investment they have made in our banking institutions,’ said Minister Lenihan.

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